Veterans' Day

My sincere thanks to all the men and women who are in the military making it possible for me and others to live the lives we do. Special thanks to my cousin Sarah and to my grandfather, whose birthday was November 11. Also to the other members of my family who have given up their personal liberty to serve the US.


While the other winners of WWI will also be celebrating today as Armistice Day, I will not be celebrating it here - because, to put it delicately, Austria-Hungary - the empire that effectively started the war when the Archduke and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist - was pretty much smashed to pieces by France and Britain. Austria didn't suffer as badly as Germany, but it was still not an especially positive situation.